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Ghana Must Go: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Taiye Selasi (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 1,300 ratings
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A “buoyant” and “rapturous” debut novel (The Wall Street Journal) about the transformative power of unconditional love

Electric, exhilarating, and beautifully crafted, Ghana Must Go introduces the world to Taiye Selasi, a novelist of extraordinary talent. In a sweeping narrative that takes readers from Accra to Lagos to London to New York, it is at once a portrait of a modern family and an exploration of the importance of where we come from to who we are.

A renowned surgeon and failed husband, Kweku Sai dies suddenly at dawn outside his home in suburban Accra. The news of his death sends a ripple around the world, bringing together the family he abandoned years before. Moving with great elegance through time and place, Ghana Must Go charts their circuitous journey to one another and, along the way, teaches us that the truths we speak can heal the wounds we hide.
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  1. Print length
    348 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Penguin Books
  5. Publication date
    March 5, 2013
  6. File size
    1438 KB
  7. Page Flip
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

A father’s death leads to a new beginning for his fractured family in this powerful first novel. Kweku Sai is felled by a sudden heart attack at his home in Ghana. At the moment of his death, Kweku is filled with regret for his abandonment of his first wife, Fola, and their four children in Baltimore, many years ago, after losing his job as a surgeon. His four children are now scattered across the East Coast: Olu, a gifted surgeon who followed in his father’s footsteps; twins Taiwo and Kehinde, who share a terrible secret from childhood; and youngest daughter Sadie, who is struggling with her body image and sexuality. In the wake of their father’s death, the four siblings, along with Olu’s wife, Ling, reunite to journey to their mother’s home in Ghana, where secrets, resentments, and grief bubble to the surface. A finely crafted yarn that seamlessly weaves the past and present, Selasi’s moving debut expertly limns the way the bonds of family endure even when they are tested and strained. --Kristine Huntley

Review

Nell Freudenberger, The New York Times Book Review:
"Selasi’s ambition—to show her readers not "Africa" but one African family, authors of their own achievements and failures—is one that can be applauded no matter what accent you give the word."

The Wall Street Journal:
“Irresistible from the first line—'Kweku dies barefoot on a Sunday before sunrise, his slippers by the doorway to the bedroom like dogs'—this bright, rhapsodic debut stood out in the thriving field of fiction about the African diaspora.”

The Economist:
"Ghana Must Go comes with a bagload of prepublication praise. For once, the brouhaha is well deserved. Ms. Selasi has an eye for the perfect detail: a baby's toenails 'like dewdrops', a woman sleeps 'like a cocoyam. A thing without senses... unplugged from the world.' As a writer she has a keen sense of the baggage of childhood pain and an unforgettable voice on the page. Miss out on Ghana Must Go and you will miss one of the best new novels of the season."

The Wall Street Journal:
"Buoyant... a joy... Rapturous."

Entertainment Weekly:
"[Selasi] writes elegantly about the ways people grow apart — husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, parents and kids."

Elle magazine:
"In Ghana Must Go, Selasi drives the six characters skillfully through past and present, unearthing old betrayals and unexplained grievances at a delicious pace. By the time the surviving five convene at a funeral in Ghana, we are invested in their reconciliation—which is both realistically shaky and dramatically satisfying… Narrative gold."

The Daily Beast:
"Selasi’s prose… is a rewarding mix of soulful conjuring and intelligent introspection, and points to a bright future."

Booklist:
"Powerful... A finely crafted yarn that seamlessly weaves the past and present, Selasi’s moving debut expertly limns the way the bonds of family endure even when they are tested and strained."

Publishers Weekly (starred review):
"Gorgeous. Reminiscent of Jhumpa Lahiri but with even greater warmth and vibrancy, Selasi’s novel, driven by her eloquent prose, tells the powerful story of a family discovering that what once held them together could make them whole again."

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love:
"Taiye Selasi is a young writer of staggering gifts and extraordinary sensitivity. Ghana Must Go seems to contain the entire world, and I shall never forget it.”

Sapphire, author of The Kid and Push:
"Taiye Selasi is a totally new and near perfect voice that spans continents and social strata as effortlessly as the insertion of an ellipsis or a dash. With mesmerizing craftsmanship and massive imagination she takes the reader on an unforgettable journey across continents and most importantly deeply into the lives of the people whom she writes about. She de-'exoticizes' whole populations and demographics and brings them firmly into the readers view as complicated and complex human beings. Taiye Selasi's Ghana Must Go is a big novel, elemental, meditative, and mesmerizing; and when one adds the words 'first novel,' we speak about the beginning of an amazing career and a very promising life in letters."

Teju Cole, author of Open City:
"Ghana Must Go is both a fast moving story of one family's fortunes and an ecstatic exploration of the inner lives of its members. With her perfectly-pitched prose and flawless technique, Selasi does more than merely renew our sense of the African novel: she renews our sense of the novel, period. An astonishing debut."

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B008EKOQWQ
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books (March 5, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 5, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1438 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 348 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 1,300 ratings

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Taiye Selasi

Taiye Selasi

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
1,300 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Jay Marcus
5.0 out of 5 stars A Marvelous Work of Realistic Fiction
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2014
Verified Purchase
Ghana Must Go is a brilliant and eloquently written novel that explores the meaning of a family unit and the crisis of unknown identity. Taiye Selasi beautifully, and almost poetically, tells the story of the Sai family, piecing together years of hardship into a reflection of Kewku, the father, and the legacy he leaves. Starting at a sudden death at dawn, Kewku, a highly established surgeon, falls to his death. While his death seems peaceful, the news about his passing ends up across the world, all the way to his children who are scattered around the United States.

Selasi magnificently details the relationships between the siblings; Olu, the oldest and most likely to take after his father; Taiwo and Kehinde, the true twins; and Sadie, the baby and their mother, Fola. Ghana Must Go goes back in time, exploring the identity of each the characters, specifically the complications they face trying to become perfect, successful imitations of their father. Almost like mini-novellas within the novel, readers learn about these siblings, the depths of their childhood and how it has shaped their being when they get the call about their father’s death. Wounds are exposed, years of unsaid horrors are brought to the surface, and the siblings, once separated by continents, will be forced to be together and share a moment of loss.

Fola, the mother, the last connection the siblings have to each other, reflects on her own issues, her close connection to her youngest, Sadie, who she fought so hard to save during childbirth. She deals with her wish for the best life for her bright, intellectually exceeding children, trying to break the cycle of the typical African immigrant family (one that moves to the states and the father moves back to Africa and abandons the family).

The book reminds me of the powerful move, August: Osage County, as they are both intense, emotional, and relatable to readers and viewers alike. They explore family dynamics, the specific issues behind each member and how all the puzzle pieces fit together.

Ghana Must Go is a breathtaking novel that pushes the concept of a typical novel, written in prose and verse that entangle readers emotionally, and you find yourself becoming connected with the characters. While the beginning may be hard to get into, the end of the novel will leave you wishing you could know more, be apart of such a marvelous work of realistic fiction.
15 people found this helpful
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Kiran Desai
4.0 out of 5 stars compelling read
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2014
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I could not wait to write my thoughts when I finished the book for fear that I would forget my keen sensation. It was like having drunk a strong liqueur and you want to note the lingering sensation, or having awakened from a dream that you want to remember. Yet I could not bring myself to do it - for it was more like having been touched by a burning twig and you want some distance and time before you can let your breath out. This was not the case until the finish line of the story that describes the horrific events of Lagos. I had some inkling about it when I speculated about the wrist cutting of Kehinde and the bizarre behavior and self- reflection of Taiwo.
Until then I was merely feeling like the Salem commercial:
You can take Kweku out of Ghana but you cannot take Ghana out of Kweku.
I kept feeling that this brilliant but warped person has some cultural baggage that cannot let him make rational decisions to get his life back in order. Here is a beautiful family. Everyone is perfect on the surface. The protagonist is a brilliant surgeon, an artist with a scalpel. He is married to a brilliant and dazzling beauty of a wife. Here is a devoted and doting wife, who aced Law school and relinquished her career to support her husband. They have a docile yet organized OCD infected surgeon son. Then they beget dazzlingly beautiful twins and a miracle baby. Why can't they put their lives together and enjoy and give back to the community what they can garner using their talents. Instead like lemmings each one courts disaster without which we would not have this book to read.
The style is mysterious. It begs editing. Maybe it is Afropolitan. Short sentences. Her generous use of pronouns and changing narrators tends to confuse the reader as to who is saying what about whom and when. It is unlike any book I have read. It requires you to read again to understand the author. I tried reading the book again and loved it. I knew the context this time around. And yet I could not proceed much farther for fear of being stung by the story's horrific events. It was like going to fetch honey but then have bee stings to contend with.
I did learn a lot about Ghana and Nigeria. Most of us are fairly knowledgeable about East Africa. India has deep trade, tourist, and family roots in Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika (Tanzania), but we have very little connection to West Africa. We hear only in passing or when we get spurious emails about countries.
glike Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, Liberia, and Sierra Leon. This book gave me considerable insight of Nkrumah's Ghana and Adichie's Nigeria (Thing around your neck, half a yellow sun, Americanah). Philadelphia has a thriving Nigerian community judging from the books we read. Yet until this book, neither did I grasp the interaction amongst West African countries, nor did I realize the influx of brilliant West Africans to the US in the late sixties.3
In 1974, when V.P. Agnew was caught taking bribes from Baltimore butchers, I said to a friend "If I were him, I'd probably kill myself rather than be dishonored like that." My American friends said, "That is so Indian. We will soon forget all about it and Agnew would live a long happy life." That resonated when I read this book. Kweku spent his lifesavings trying to fight the Cabots in Boston and then ran away leaving his family destitute. No sensible American would consider either of those actions.
Fola sent her teenage twins to Nigeria to save money. Which American in his/her right mind would contemplate such a stupid course of action?
This to me is the message of "Ghana Must Go." Such cultural baggage must go from one's mindset. Family and love should be the central priority of one's life- not the perception of honor or of an image of what would be perceived of by friends or the community.
Junot Diaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) uses Spanish words without explanation to promote non-Eurocentric culture. He proclaims that the reader should make an effort to learn basic vocabulary of other cultures. Rushdie does that sometimes. Jhumpa Lahiri and other foreign authors (including Sotomayer) use native words but explain the meaning. Mostly the usage is limited to capture the culture being portrayed. In my opinion, Selasi over uses African words. She does explain them but they distract you from the message and the story. Nothing is added by knowing that Kweku means one born on Wednesday. A splattering might be enough. Taiye, on the other hand, douses us with meanings of names that have little to do with the story (Taiye, she did NOT explain means Elder Twin). I found that distracting and confusing. I can see that Toni Morrison and Rushdie, whose books I often struggle with, mentoring her. Taiye Selasi is, however, more confusing with her use of pronouns and changing narrators mid stream. I find Morrison and Rushdie often dense while Selasi is fluid. Despite all that I think the book was a brilliant narration. I learned a lot and enjoyed the book. It certainly was not a pedestrian novel that one would soon forget."
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Janaina
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written
Reviewed in Brazil on February 25, 2020
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An intense, emotional and sensitive narrative about love, ancestry and forgiveness.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Captivant et merveilleusement bien écrit!
Reviewed in France on April 9, 2016
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Je recommande ce livre, particulièrement à tous les amoureux de l'Afrique, ceux qui y vivent ou l'ont quittée, comme les très profonds personnages de cette histoire.
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Lunatrix
5.0 out of 5 stars A challenging style at first, but a brilliant book nonetheless!
Reviewed in Canada on April 16, 2013
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I loved everything about this book: the story, the way the author gives depth to the different characters, the pace, everything. I have to admit at first I wasn't convinced by the long sentences and at times "choppy" style, but she quickly abducted me!! Then towards the end I thought, how is she going to keep up with this intensity? And how is she going to avoid resorting to some trite stereotypes? She does both!!

One of the things I really appreciated about this book is how the author challenges many of the pre-conceived images we have about African Americans in a no-nonsense kind of way. If you're expecting to read a sad tale of poverty, discrimination and resilience on the face of adversity, well, this book is not going to cut it. The Sais are a "normal" family (if that ever existed) with doctors and world-class artists in their midst. They are strong even when they don't know it. And being inside their heads the best literary adventure I've had this year.

It is incredible that this is Selasi's first novel. Mind blowing. I'm already impatiently waiting for the next one!
4 people found this helpful
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Ron Crisman
5.0 out of 5 stars Ni Kerouak escribe con tanto flow
Reviewed in Spain on August 6, 2014
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Escritora imponente de la que aprender. Clásica en sus planteamientos literarios pero absolutamente moderna en el modo de encadenar las frases que fluyen como un rap lleno de referencias cultas. Leerlo en inglés te hará tener que usar el diccionario constantemente porque maneja uno de los vocabularios más variados y extensos de la lengua inglesa. Una maga.
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Alberto
5.0 out of 5 stars Ottimo
Reviewed in Italy on May 21, 2014
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Libro arrivato in ottime condizioni. Anche l'imballaggio era perfetto. Tempi per la consegna brevi come sempre. Consiglio a tutti gli interessati.
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